“For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak. Consume them in wrath, consume them that they may not be: and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth.” {Psalm 59:12-13}
Pretty serious isn’t it? “Consume them in wrath, consume them.” That’s the prayer of king David against his enemies that use words to hurt him. These days we don’t have to travel far to hear someone that hates us hurt us with words. Our own friends insult us. People we hang out with can do it in a second and not think anything about it. It really bothers me to hear people these days insult one another and put down each other and think it’s okay.
But it is not okay. What we don’t understand is that there is someone that is always listening. God. Yes, He is always listening. The Bible states that God fills both heaven and earth with His presence. The heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool. {Isaiah 66:1} Yes, the Lord is always listening. Out of all people, you don’t want God listening to you insulting and making fun of your friend. You may say you’re just kidding but the Lord understands the thoughts of the heart of man. He knows the intents of our hearts. He knows our motives. Words are a way to express our hearts. The Bible states, “Out of the abundance of the heart our mouth speaks.” {Matthew 12:34} The Lord does not care about appearances He cares about the heart. That’s what He told Prophet Samuel. He does not care about how you look He cares about your heart:
“But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” {1 Samuel 16:7}
The Bible states that we will be giving an account of every careless word we have spoken on this earth on the day of judgment. {Matthew 12:36} So don’t just hurl words of insult or a put down on somebody and think it’s nothing. By our words we will be justified and by our words we will be condemned. {Matthew 12:37} It’s one thing to think of hurtful words, it’s another to say it to someone out loud. Once you’ve spoken something and said it to someone you can never take it back. You can only apologize, and you should, but once it’s out of your mouth, it may never be forgotten. This is the kind of sin that is so easy to save ourselves from because we can control what we say but is the kind of sin that is very hard to take back. It goes right into the soul of the heart of the hearer and it is so hard to easily forget about it once it hits the heart. When you cheat someone you can turn around and repent and pay them back. When you promised to do something and weren’t able to come through with it, you can repent and do what you say you’re going to do. But once you tell another person demeaning words and make them feel like they’re no good and they hurt, it’s irrevocable. How many of us have been damaged by words said to us? There are many who are still immobilized by words said to them as a child. They have not gotten over it even though it’s been said years ago. And further more, they’re not the only one that’s hurting. Don’t you know what we say to one another can affect and hurt God too – who is the advocate of all those that are oppressed and hates the proud? One night I remember talking to the Lord about a sister in a church I was newly attending. I was talking to God what I thought of her. I do this all the time with the Lord. When I’m thinking of someone in my mind and I think out loud of what I think of that person I tell the Lord what I think; good or bad, I tell Him. The Lord is my friend so I talk to Him as I would with a friend. And often I just feel Him listen to me and not say anything. I didn’t even realize I was saying something wrong, I actually thought the Lord would agree with me. But instead this time I got the Lord rebuking me and told me in essence to stop talking. He would not let me speak negative of this sister. I found out later on, having the opportunity to hang out more with her, that she hated it when people talked negative about other people. One time she got really upset at a group of us for criticizing someone (that was not with us) in her hearing and boy she let us know it. I ended up feeling bad and apologizing to her. I felt from the Lord that I needed to do that, so I did. I told her, “I’m sorry” and thankfully she was of a forgiving heart too and smiled and said, “It’s okay.” The Lord showed me that He loved this sister because of that character she has.
So if you want God to favor you, just keep your criticisms to yourself and think of something else to say that will not be hurtful, or just make it easier for yourself and don’t say anything at all. Especially when it comes to God favoring us, we certainly want His approval. It reminds me of a scripture that says, “Surely He scorneth the scorners: but He giveth grace unto the lowly.” {Proverbs 3:34} We can’t imagine God doing that do we? Even though we take it for granted how God must feel about us talking bad to one another, or evil speaking to each other and putting each other down, scorning each other. This practice bothers the Lord very much. He actually hates it. He will scorn you if you scorn someone. Really, do we want God to scorn us? No, we want Him to bless us instead. If we choose His way He will give us grace. Grace is a big deal because it means it’s an unmerited favor. So when you need His help one of these days, and we all do now and again, we can be confident to ask His help. We will have nothing to be ashamed of because we have chosen the humble way rather than the scornful way.
He is a very sensitive God. He cares very much about what we say to one another and about each other. Remember: He loves us and died for us. We need to watch the words we say to one another and we need to teach our children to do the same, by first practicing it ourselves and second, by pointing it out to them if what they’re saying is not pleasing to the Lord. If they mean to insult or hurt someone it is absolutely not pleasing to the Lord. That is scorning. Remember the admonition the Lord said in the gospel of Matthew; He said that if we curse our brother and say to him, “Thou fool!” we are in danger of hell fire! Pretty serious isn’t it? This is what He said, “But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, (meaning vain, empty, worthless) shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” {Matthew 5:22} You know what a “fool” means in the dictionary? An idiot, a blockhead, a dunce, ignoramus, imbecile, dullard, simpleton, moron, on and on. We can come up with all the adjectives we want, it doesn’t matter if it is not in the dictionary. If we have made someone feel like an idiot or a moron, in short, a fool, then we have sinned in the eyes of the Lord. We are in danger of hell fire.
The Bible states, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” {Proverbs 18:21} We unfortunately have this misconception that “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” and go on thinking that as long as we’re not physically hurting someone, we’re not doing anything wrong. We believe in the saying of the Bible, “Do unto others what you want done unto you,” so as long as we don’t cheat or steal or physically hurt someone nothing wrong is going to happen to us. Well, right here in Proverbs 18:21 it tells us that there is power in our tongue and what we say can reap fruits. If we say good, we will reap good. If we say bad things, we will reap bad things. Another scriptures states, if we want life and if we want long days and to see good in our lives, we need to keep our tongue from evil speaking and guile speaking (sly or deceitful things). {Psalm 34:12-13}:
“What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days, that he may see good?
Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile.
Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” {Psalm 34:12-14}
But we’re so ingrained in our thinking that words don’t really hurt people and therefore don’t think we’re not doing anything wrong at all. Or that we’re not hurting ourselves back. If we say something hurtful to someone we can just shrug our shoulders and move on. So many of us don’t even feel any need at all to apologize. We assume we have not sinned. We can continue to bless God with our lips, love Him with our mouths, and do good to people – give them money, food, clothing, gifts, etc. – and expect God to hear our prayers and for Him to grant our heart’s desires. But in the meantime we are sowing evil things. We are practicing wicked works and we don’t even know it.
“Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren these things ought not so to be.” {James 3:9-10}
Here’s David’s psalm telling us how watching what we say can bring us closer to God:
“Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.
He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.”
{Psalm 15:1-3}
Notice the “taking up a reproach against his neighbor”? I see that everywhere today.
Being sarcastic and witty (to hurt someone) is a form of reproach. We think we get away with witty talk, trying to be funny, but watch out! Remember God knows the heart and He is the great Judge of all. Don’t think the Lord doesn’t know what you mean when you said something funny to someone in a round about way to insult them. The Lord knows. These days not only do we backbite one another (talk evil behind someone’s back) or reproach each other by trying to be funny about it, we have come now to where we blatantly insult each other. It is especially awful with the young people these days. It is terrible to hear young people insult one another as a part of their conversation, and think nothing of it. Who is going to let them know? Who is going to teach them that this is not good and will not be beneficial to them at all in the long run?
I think it is time we acknowledge that this is not good. We need to see how wrong this is. If we want a good life and a long life for our children, we need to teach them and caution them about this practice. Especially by practicing it ourselves right away. The Bible states that the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and His ears are open unto their cry.
“The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous and His ears are open unto their cry.
The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.” {Psalm 34:15-16}
“…To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth…”
Pretty serious isn’t it? It really is. I feel the burden from the Lord to write about this. If we want the Lord to hear our prayers and to hear the prayers of our children we need to practice and teach our children good conversations. We need to do it for ourselves – for the sake of our future and the future of our children. We need to condemn insulting and evil speaking out of our lives. It is time to repent before the Lord about our evil speaking that He may bless us and take our sins away. To ask for His grace and help to start talking good to one another. We want Him to start hearing our conversations to be laced with good and encouraging words; words that lift and build, not to discourage and tear down. It is time we teach our children to hold back their tongue from insulting back, and we ourselves teach them by refraining from lashing out at them and putting them down as well. I pray that that the Lord will help us to have “our speech be always with grace…that we may know how we ought to answer every man.” {Colossians 4:6}
“Set a watch O LORD before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.” {Psalm 141:3}
“Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me: and to him that ordereth his conversation (conduct) aright will I shew the salvation of God.” {Psalm 50:23}
“I said I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue…” {Psalm 39:1}
“Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” {1 Peter 2:1-3}
“Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:
Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing(insult for insult): but contrariwise blessing (meaning, use words that bless the hearers); knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.
For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile (sly):
Let him eschew (deliberately avoid or abstain from) evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it (pursue it).
For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. {1 Peter 3:8-12}
